Junior Mafia or Teddy Boys Picnic? It’s 1950s Nottinghamshire

As part of British Pathé’s ongoing project to build up its canister note information on certain areas of Britain, the Nottingham Evening Post wrote this brilliant piece today, highlighting some of our best clips relating to the area of Nottinghamshire. Honing in on a clip of Teddy Boys in the village of Sneinton, 1959, journalist Andy Smart asked readers if they could shine any light on the clip.

The video is one of our favourite 1950s pieces from the archive, it depicts a group of Teddy Boys who agree to clean their local church and attend evensong on the condition that the vicar lets the boys throw a dance party for their girlfriends in the vicarage! It’s incredible how good the boys are at dancing too. Of course these Teddy Boys look quite sweet and endearing to 12st century viewers, but in the 1950s they were actually quite a feared British subculture, lurking on street corners with a reputation of acting like mini gangsters. These Teddy Boys are clearly good natured though.

A certain Mrs Papworth has already been in touch with Nottingham Evening Post, as she recognised her two brothers-in-law posing amongst the group of Teddy Boys! In time British Pathé will update their canister notes so that this information is protected for the benefit of future generations, immortalisting those who were lucky enough to get caught on camera by British Pathé.

Sneinton's Teddy Boys come to an agreement with their local vicar Rev Tyson